Monthly Archives: April 2015

Welcome to Wednesday Words! Every Wednesday I will post some sort of prompt for a flash fiction piece. The prompt will go live just after midnight Eastern time.

The prompt might be a picture, or it might be a list of things to include in a story, or maybe a phrase or a question or something from a “news of the weird” type thing, or a… who knows?

After that, it’s up to you. But if you do use the prompt to write a bit of flash fiction (say, 500 words or so) I’d love to see what you came up with, so comment below with a link to where it is on your blog (or on WattPad or wherever).

(And a pingback to the post here where you found the prompt would be appreciated but isn’t necessary.)

Oh, and this isn’t a contest or anything. It’s just a (hopefully) fun thing for all concerned.

I am 9000 words behind where I should be – 11,000 by the time midnight hits, as I doubt I’ll get a thousand words written before I have to go to work today. And even though I am off the next three days, I am beginning to doubt my ability to reach my goal, which means that for the first time since I started I may not “win” a NaNoWriMo event.

Oh, sure, nothing bad is going to happen if I don’t win. The sky isn’t going to fall, no one is going to die, and civilization will not collapse. I will lose my bragging rights, that’s all.

I’m trying to figure out what is going wrong this month, what has made it different than other NaNoWriMos.

It certainly can’t be worse than the first year of C amp when I did two 50k novels back to back.

And it definitely isn’t as bad as the year that I was working full time, going to school part time (in two different directions) and ML’ing for the first time and still (because I couldn’t decide what to write) wrote two 50k novels in one month. (And in addition, that November started with a battle between my hot water tank and the carpeted basement floor on the first.)

All I can come up with is a combination of my job (part time but very draining) and the pinched sciatic nerve that made sitting for more than half an hour at a time impossible. (Not to mention time lost for chiropractor appointments.) And NaPoWriMo, but I’ve done Camp and the poetry challenge before and won. (I’ve done two Camps and a November with this job, too.)

Burning out? Maybe. The 1K-a-Day challenge is starting to wear on me a bit (although it should seem like a downhill ride after this month) and I really want to start editing.

All I know for sure is I’ll be 11k behind by midnight, and staring at the possibility of defeat.

And, like the writer that I am, I am filing away how that feels for future use.

And like the writer that I am, I am not going to quit trying until midnight on the 30th.

Posting a few excerpts from a UFO (UnFinished Object) that is in my “Novels I’m Ignoring” file. It’s a rough draft of a science fiction novel called The Onyx Sun and I just reread it and I don’t hate it anymore so it might get edited and finished someday. Keep in mind this is a very rough draft of something that I haven’t even looked at since last August or so and which has probably been a victim of creative editing.

Summary:
Taliya Swann has been away from home negotiating a mining contract on another planet. When she called to advise her mother (head of House/Company) that they had a contract, Maureena informed her that her grandmother had died the day before. All that was left to look forward to was being reunited with her lover, Luzita.

Returning home, she was met by Regino, the butler, who told her that her grandmother’s funeral had been held the day she died. She had just asked where Luzita was when her mother entered and dismissed Regino.

“I would have liked to have gone to the funeral.”

Maureena shrugged. “There wasn’t one. I felt that the expense was unnecessary and had her body sent straight to the crematorium. By the way, you are needed at Aelind’s office at precisely 9:00 tomorrow morning to be given your inheritance.”

Taliya struggled to maintain composure: her mother’s uncaring attitude was already beginning to punch holes in her emotional armor, and coupled with grief over her grandmother’s death and Regino’s hesitancy to answer her questions Taliya was on the verge of losing control.

She nodded: she would not break down in front of Maureena. She would not give her the pleasure of her tears, would not even draw the deep breath that her lungs were screaming for.

“And Luzita?” she asked.

“Gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“I don’t know. I sold her.”

Want to read more snippets from some really great authors?
Check out Sunday Snippets on Face Book.

Okay, so I am 8000 words behind where I should be, and I’ve become somewhat obsessed by mathematics lately.

I’m kind of like that FaceBook meme about insomnia, where you spend the night calculating how much sleep you would get if you fell asleep right that minute.

I’m 8k behind now. If I get another 5k written today I’ll only be 3k behind, but I’m working the next 3 days and at 2k words per day that puts me 9k behind by Monday night and 11k behind by Tuesday after midnight, but I can usually get at least 1000 words written on work days so that leaves me at 8k behind on Tuesday…

(Yeah. It’s confusing. I made myself a chart to keep track.)

And then I check my math looking for loopholes.

And when I can’t find any I panic.

And I only have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then the month will be over…

But if I write 5k on Tuesday I’ll be 5k behind on Wednesday and if I do 5k then I’ll be caught up and will only need 2k on Thursday…

Next month’s 1K-a-Day is going to look like a walk in the park.

And you know what the really sad thing is? Next Camp I’ll be doing the 2k a Day challenge again. And again in November.

I tell myself that it will be easier when I’m not also doing a poem a day.

Welcome to Wednesday Words! Every Wednesday I will post some sort of prompt for a flash fiction piece. The prompt will go live just after midnight Eastern time.

The prompt might be a picture, or it might be a list of things to include in a story, or maybe a phrase or a question or something from a “news of the weird” type thing, or a… who knows?

After that, it’s up to you. But if you do use the prompt to write a bit of flash fiction (say, 500 words or so) I’d love to see what you came up with, so comment below with a link to where it is on your blog (or on WattPad or wherever).

(And a pingback to the post here where you found the prompt would be appreciated but isn’t necessary.)

Oh, and this isn’t a contest or anything. It’s just a (hopefully) fun thing for all concerned.

So, as I was going to bed at 1:30 this morning I had an awful thought:

“Oh, hell, it’s Monday.”

Now, considering that Monday is my Friday, that shouldn’t have been a bad thing, right?

Well, it wouldn’t have been except that I had no blog post and no idea what to write about.

I’m still about 10k behind on Camp but now that I am more or less pain free I hope to make a huge dent in that the next two days.

And I should be able to. The story is flowing really well right now, which is surprising because one of the reasons that it’s been sitting for so long is because I was having so much trouble getting it moving. But apparently I just needed a break from it.

Oh, it’s going to need a lot of editing. For one thing, there’s a whole scene that I think I need to move to later in the book and a lot that is probably going to get cut, but, hey, it’s a first draft and at least I’m going to have something to edit.

Speaking of editing, I think next month I might start poking at The Onyx Sun a bit. It’s been sitting in my “Novels I’m Ignoring” file (yes, that is the actual name of the file) since at least August because I thought the whole thing sucked. I recently reread it and it isn’t as bad as I remembered it being, so I think I’ll see if I can polish it up a bit.

Posting a few excerpts from a UFO (UnFinished Object) that is in my “Novels I’m Ignoring” file. It’s a rough draft of a science fiction novel called The Onyx Sun and I just reread it and I don’t hate it anymore so it might get edited and finished someday. Keep in mind this is a very rough draft of something that I haven’t even looked at since last August or so and which has probably been a victim of creative editing.

Summary:
Taliya Swann has been away from home negotiating a mining contract on another planet. When she called to advise her mother (head of House/Company) that they had a contract, Maureena informed her that her grandmother had died the day before. All that was left to look forward to was being reunited with her lover, Luzita.

Returning home, she was met by Regino, the butler, who told her that her grandmother’s funeral had been held the day she died.

“The day–” Taliya’s mind froze, replaying the conversation with Maureena: Your grandmother died yesterday. “She… She didn’t even tell me until the next day.”

“I am sorry, Miss Taliya, truly I am.”

“I know, Regino, but it’s not your fault.” She took a deep breath and let her gaze travel the room, searching the doorways. “Where is Luzita?”

Before he could answer Maureena entered from her private office. “That will be all, Regino,” she said, her voice as cold as the clacking sound of her dress shoes as she crossed the marble floor.

The man bowed and left them, but not without casting a sympathetic look to Taliya.

Taliya watched him go and then turned to her mother, her face a well-practiced mask: Maureena did not approve of any sort of emotional display.

Want to read more snippets from some really great authors?
Check out Sunday Snippets on Face Book.

1) Pain is not conducive to writing. Fortunately, a great chiropractor and three days off work have done wonders for that. Now if I just don’t fall apart during the next four days at work, I’ll be all set.

I hope.

2) Smaller chunks of writing help me a lot. Instead of focusing on writing a couple thousand words I need to just write in sets of two or three hundred – more if I’m on a roll – and then add it to the main doc and take a break for a couple of minutes to sort through the next bit of dialogue or whatever.

3) I am apparently immune to 5 Hour Energy Drinks. I wanted to pull an all nighter Wednesday into Thursday, but after a lengthy battle to get the outer seal off of the bottle, and steeling myself to drink the stuff, I got a brief rush and an hour later was ready to crash.

4) I really like detailed outlines and wish I had one and I swear that whatever I write for next camp session will have one.

Actually, I did have one. Well, I had an outline, at least – not very detailed, but an outline nonetheless.

But that was for book three of the name-challenged trilogy, and I finished it on Wednesday. (Yay! Now it gets to sit for a while before I start editing.)

And that brings me to a summary of progress made.

The nameless trilogy is done, although I am still going to write the alternate version of book one.

When I finished the trilogy, I gave myself a break from novels by writing a short side story for The Academy of the Accord series. It’s really rough and needs work, but it was a fun little diversion.

Then I skim read what I had written for Book Two of The Other Mages trilogy and couldn’t believe how much I’d forgotten. I’m currently working on it and it’s flowing pretty well, considering that there is no outline to speak of.

This is what is currently passing for my outline for the rest of this book. I’m not even sure what I was thinking when I wrote some of it. (The part in italics is actually an excerpt from the current version of Book Three and I have no idea why I put it in this outline.)

OUTLINE

Journey to Besembe

— Go to see Marnetta’s tower. [WHY?] It turns out to be the one that Katheri knew as Kelennor’s. [WHAT HAPPENED TO MARNETTA?]

“They’ve all pulled out of Besembe, then,” Katheri said softly. “There was some talk of it when I was there, but no decision had been reached.” She frowned. “They must have done it pretty quickly.”

“I cannot imagine Besembe not being there,” Trebor murmured.

“I know,” Zaren said. “I was only there this once, and then just briefly and there weren’t any others there, but still, it… It’s home.”

Katheri nodded. “I got the sense that there were fewer people there than normal when I was there. And the ones that were there — they were still discussing the best course of action.”

Final test

Initiation

Role of a Priestess (Priestess training)

[STILL NEED INITIATION AND ROLE OF PRIEST IN BOOK ONE]

Still having trouble accepting her own Power — advised that she will grow into it and come to terms with it.

Meeting X can be the catalyst that triggers it? — or should that wait until Book Three when she has to defend Zaren?

Some of that is no longer even applicable, or will need to be moved and rearranged, and something I totally didn’t plan on happening is going to happen in Besembe which will probably mess with book three.

But book three is already such a mess that I doubt I’ll even notice.

So, there you have it. One trilogy (that has no name but which was at least written in order) completed. One very rough draft of a short story. And book two of another trilogy flowing well and should be finished by the end of the month.

Welcome to Wednesday Words! Every Wednesday I will post some sort of prompt for a flash fiction piece. The prompt will go live just after midnight Eastern time.

The prompt might be a picture, or it might be a list of things to include in a story, or maybe a phrase or a question or something from a “news of the weird” type thing, or a… who knows?

After that, it’s up to you. But if you do use the prompt to write a bit of flash fiction (say, 500 words or so) I’d love to see what you came up with, so comment below with a link to where it is on your blog (or on WattPad or wherever).

(And a pingback to the post here where you found the prompt would be appreciated but isn’t necessary.)

Oh, and this isn’t a contest or anything. It’s just a (hopefully) fun thing for all concerned.